Lost No More
by AHeartForStories
Summary: After three years Hiccup's sudden disappearance remains unsolved. A grieving father is forced to move on for the sake of his village, a blacksmith has yet to choose a new apprentice, children grow up missing the face they've known since birth. The Dragon Master and a fated reunion may finally give them the answers they seek.
1. A Malicious Plan

_This was originally just an idea I posted on Tumblr, but I was never sure if I should even turn it into a fic because so many people have already written for the 'Hiccup runs away' trope. So this story pretty much came into existence thanks to coneygoil, renkocchi, softhairstark, daglout, just-call-me-emrys, let-the-wind-carry-us and only-girl-on-a-dragon on Tumblr, who motivated me to go ahead and turn this idea into a fic. Seriously, thank you guys!_

 _EDIT: Edited this chapter a little._

* * *

 **Lost No More: Chapter 1 - A Malicious Plan**

He didn't want to leave.

Even after packing a basket with what he thought were the bare essentials, even after exclaiming to his dragon that they should 'take a vacation... forever!', and even after climbing on Toothless' back and taking off, Hiccup found that they couldn't leave.

They had been flying for well over an hour now after their smooth departure from the cove, the place where their friendship had first blossomed, and the sun was already gradually setting. But instead of choosing a direction and flying off into the distance to then desperately keep from looking back, they had been widely circling the island of Berk.

Occasionally they even soared over the Viking settlement itself and each time Hiccup gazed down at the people going about their day, many still celebrating their heir's winning of the honour to kill a Monstrous Nightmare in the Kill Ring tomorrow, and at the house he grew up in.

Though he doubted it, Hiccup wondered if his father was already home. He wondered if the man was waiting for him and looked forward to seeing his son again.

It made a stabbing pain form in his chest and he began to question his want to leave.

He knew his father loved him. Gods, no matter how strained their relationship was or how little they understood eachother, that was something Hiccup knew for certain. That man would die for him, has even jumped in front of the hot flames of a dragon to protect him, and here he was about to leave.

About to leave Berk and the people who trusted he one day step up as chief to lead them through an uncertain future. His mentor who taught him everything he knew in blacksmithing and was like an uncle to him. The new friends, those who had finally come to see him as more than just the 'troublemaking runt' and who were now seeing and liking him for who he was. And his father, who's heart he'd break by doing something as callous as fleeing from his problems without so much as leaving a note.

Not even the rush of the wind, though usually so soothing even as it caused adrenaline to course through his veins, could do nothing to wash away the guilt he felt.

Hiccup's hold on the saddle he had created with his very own two hands tightened as that awful feeling in his chest grew and suffocated the very life out of him.

That was why he realized he couldn't leave.

The Night Fury he rode gave a warble in question as he looked at his scrawny rider from over his shoulder, wondering why it is that Hiccup insisted they keep flying above the Viking island.

Though night was approaching, a black dragon with wings as big as Toothless' still tended to stand out for now. So it was why, even though he wanted to give Hiccup the time he needed to say goodbye to his human home, the longer they spend flying around Berk all the easier it'll become for them to be spotted.

To fly or to stay, the boy on his back needed to make a decision now.

"I'm sorry, Toothless." And a decision was exactly what had been made.

This had all been to keep the dragon safe. Whatever Hiccup was so afraid would happen tomorrow, Toothless' understanding of the human language wasn't all that great yet, it had something to do with him. Something about their cover being blown, about secrets and lies being exposed. Whatever it was, it scared the Viking boy.

"I know we should go, I really do, but I can't." Hiccup wasn't expecting the dragon to forgive him or to even listen to him, but he still pressed on.

"Can... Can we go back, Bud? Back to the cove?" He asked almost timidly, a strange sound to hear from someone he'd come to know as so straightforward and... sarcastic?

Whatever that scared him so tomorrow, it apparently couldn't win against his want to stay home. For Toothless, who had known only the Dragon Queen's volcano for the longest time prior to ending up on Berk with this peculiar human fledgling, could respect that decision.

Hiccup was smart. He had helped him reach for the high skies again with his surprisingly clever hands. Toothless could trust the boy would find a solution to his problem aswell.

When the dragon gave him an affirming growl, the Viking released a sigh and rubbed the top of his head, laying down carefully.

"Thanks for understanding, Bud. Really!" Toothless warbled again, as if telling him that he needn't to worry.

Changing course, the unlikely human and dragon duo turned to head back to the cove, something that took quite a bit of energy out of Hiccup's sore body. His muscles were rapidly growing stronger with the several attempted and realized flights, but they had been mostly short.

This was the longest Hiccup had ever been in the air. As much as he was quickly coming to enjoy the sky, he was now longing to stand on his own two feet.

But it was while returning to Berk, honestly the boy already felt like he'd been gone for far too long, that one half of the pair noticed something was off.

Toothless, as he veered to the right to find the cove between the tall trees, suddenly stopped mid-flight. It caused Hiccup to change the position of the tailfin in a blind panic, for a moment believing they were about to crash once more.

Some runaway he was.

"Toothless? What's wrong, Bud?" Boy asked dragon, who gestured with his snout that Hiccup better look down there. He figured this was something an inhabitant of this island would want to see.

Said Viking did as he was told and gazed down at the shores of a beach almost completely on the other side of Berk, just out of sight from their farthest watchtowers. He had to somewhat stand in order to have a proper look.

When he spotted what Toothless believed must be important for him to know, bright forest green eyes narrowed in suspicion.

There was a ship down there, two in fact. And there was one that Hiccup had known his entire life.

"Trader Johann? But he isn't supposed to be on Berk for another couple of weeks. And that other ship, I don't recognize that sail from up here." Though his Norse wasn't the best yet, Toothless had gleaned enough to realize that something was not right. Whatever these strangers had come to do on Hiccup's island could hardly be any good.

"Come on, Bud." Without as much as discussing it first did the two decide to go down low enough to get a better look at the uninvited guests, using rock formations and vegetation as cover.

It wasn't long before Hiccup knew he was right. That crest on the sail was indeed one he had never seen before as it was shaped to look like a fist, a red and bloodied fist. As heir, he was expected to know at least a sail or two. It was hard not to with all of the treaties that needed to be signed annually with allied tribes. But this one did not even look in the slightest bit familiar.

As for the people that ship had brought, they were dressed in clothing Hiccup had never seen before. It was almost like a uniform, worn in the different colours that helped him identify the material as dragon hides even from up here. Some of them were such bright colours.

Because meeting Toothless taught him of the true nature of these fire breathing beasts, Hiccup felt a new kind of anger he had never experienced before well up inside him. An anger and a fear. Both were difficult to swallow.

Diverting his attention, Hiccup searched for the trader he'd known for as long as he could remember, a traveler by the name of Johann who once amused him with wild tales about his adventures in faraway lands. Squinting his eyes, he found him eventually and he seemed to be talking to a balding man.

"I should've brought a spyglass with me." He muttered before directing the tailfin to have Toothless land. He needed to get closer, hear what they were saying, and find out if Berk was about to be in trouble or not.

A small part of him nagged him in the back of his mind, telling him how this might be an excellent opportunity to change his father's mind about dragons.

It was a thought quickly rejected.

Change the mind of Stoick the Vast? Sure.

Folding his wings, Toothless swiftly disappeared within the trees and landed on his four paws with barely a sound. He understood his rider's desire to find out more. With stealth only a Night Fury could have, even with a prosthetic tailfin and a human boy on his back, Toothless crept closer to the two ships and the Vikings on the beach.

To a dragon it was easy to listen in, so Toothless had to remind himself that humans couldn't hear as well as most dragons could, the rare exception being the Thunderdrum. He could only guess it was probably because of all the yelling they could do.

With the sun setting there were plenty of shadows to hide in while amongst the plantlife. Though Hiccup would still make him stand out, Toothless used them to stalk closer. He gave a soft grunt, which his rider thankfully correctly took that he might want to lay down as flat as he could.

It was growing darker and the shadows became longer, but soon enough the Night Fury ran out of space to lurk in. Fortunately, it was just close enough for Hiccup to hear aswell.

Johann, as the boy had called him, was a scrawny man with a thick kind of fur on his chin and jawline. His clothing was also of the sort he hadn't seen any of the Vikings of Berk wear before. It helped him deduce this must be a foreigner. So it wasn't just his ship that told the dragon he wasn't even from the Archipelago.

He was talking to a large, bald man with a differently shaped kind of short dark fur on his face. With his broad shoulders he would've already been an intimidating sight, but there was a worringly dangerous sword on his back, tinted green due to a strange metal. To make matters worse Toothles could see, and smell, that he was wearing the skin of a dragon.

He would've snarled malociously if he wasn't in hiding and protecting that feeble boy on his back.

"Looks like that's the leader, Bud." Hiccup whispered as softly as he could, speaking next to the dragon's left earfin. Both of their gazes were locked on the two arguing men. Johann was angry. The angriest he had ever seen him.

Hiccup strained his hearing to try and catch anything from the conversation, but failed to grasp little besides a few meaningless words.

Stoick, his father.

Runty heir, Hiccup felt a terrible ache clench around his heart. He knew with certainty that they were refering to him now.

And... some kind of king? Of dragons?

A King of Dragons.

"I've worked much too hard to get this far, Ryker... Dragon's Nest... So close... Stoick will find it for us... Runty heir no problem to deal with..." They were only parts of a rant Trader Johann was apparently giving the stranger, seemingly called Ryker, but it was enough for fear to wrap its cold embrace around Hiccup's heart.

They wanted something from his father, something to do with a king of sorts in the Dragon's Nest. Stoick was supposedly the one to get them there. And after getting it, something would lead to them 'taking care' of his runt of a son. Hiccup knew his life was suddenly in jeopardy and this time not because of dragons or dangerous situations he put himself in.

Toothless sensed the fear as the Viking boy shrunk and half curled up on the saddle with widened eyes. A want to get him out of here sparked within the Night Fury. He could hear his breathing growing ragged, could pretty much smell the fear coming from him in waves, could feel Hiccup's want to just disappear altogether.

This was much different than the time when Hiccup kept his cool as they plummeted out of the sky and almost met a crushing death. Toothless didn't quite understand why, but he at least understood that whatever was happening was greater than just the two of them.

But whilst they were so caught up in Johann's traitorous ways, boy and dragon failed to notice the predator lurking in the shadows from behind. Knocking an arrow with a suspiciously greenish tip on his bow, the hunter took aim and chose the bigger of the two targets.

"Toothless, we need to go now. My dad needs to know. I'll figure out something to say, but we gotta get out of here." Tapping his dragon's head as he finally managed to somewhat snap out of it, Hiccup spoke and Toothless was more than happy to oblige.

He wasn't all too comfortable with the idea that these two men meant harm to his rider. And he had heard a lot more of the shady conversation than Hiccup did.

But the decision to return was made too late.

As Hiccup positioned the tailfin and Toothless moved to search for a clearing to spread his wings in, the man with the bow let his arrow fly.

* * *

The village of Berk was quiet and peaceful while another day came to an end. As the sun slowly set and the moon grew brighter, the celebratory feast in the Great Hall came to an end.

Their heir, Chief Stoick the Vast's only son, had always been an odd boy, much like his late-mother, Valka Haddock. Many might say he had taken after her the most and rightfully so. He was her in both looks and personality.

Yet that same strange and scrawny boy had entered Dragon Training, had excelled in a way they never could've thought possible, and he had become that year's champion. Reason enough to celebrate. The heir finally showed some promise.

The village's only blacksmith was drunkenly laughing amongst friends and boasting about his deceptively frail apprentice. A husky boy read through the Book of Dragons for the eighth or ninth time, eager to see Hiccup again later and ask him if they could study the dragons in the manual together. One pair of twins were recounting their time in training in utter glee, colourfully describing the more violent parts.

A broad shouldered boy, though he did not mention it out loud, felt glad his cousin was acting more like a Viking. Meanwhile a young girl, hoping to one day become a shieldmaiden to fight for her family's reputation, sat seething on her seat at a table with her food untouched. And a father made his way home to his house on a hill, a wide smile of pride present as he looked forward to instill his son with encouraging words and wisdom.

No one had any idea their lives were about to be turned upside down with the disappearance of one young boy.


	2. Taken

_Now, I hadn't actually planned for this story to go this way, but it made a lot more sense than what I had originally planned. So thank you, GriffTalon, for giving me a much better idea through your review or this second chapter might've taken a lot longer to write._

* * *

 **Lost No More: Chapter 2** **\- Taken**

"Toothless!" The shout left him before Hiccup could stop himself when an arrow came whizzing by much too close for comfort. It had almost hit the Night Fury's tail.

Glaring into the direction where the projectile had come from, Toothless snarled with his teeth bared as he came to face one of the men from the ship. His wings unfurled somewhat to make his size and strength be known in a show of intimidation, telling the unwanted human that he wasn't a dragon to be messed with.

Their new foe wasn't taken off guard in the slightest. As a matter of fact, he simply took another strange arrow from his quiver. He was adamant in bringing his prey down.

"Maybe we should go, Bud, back to Berk. My dad needs to know about this." Hiccup's hold on his saddle tightened. Should Toothless decide to suddenly take off into the forest, he would be ready.

It had been by pure luck alone that the dragon managed to avoid injury. Right as the arrow flew, he had turned to run deeper into the forest in search of a clearing and that move was what had saved him. This time, however, the hunter wasn't going to let them escape.

And he wasn't alone.

"Toothless..." The worry in Hiccup's voice caused the Night Fury to take a look around himself. In the growing darkness, he could see a whole group of the invaders surrounding them. There wasn't much of an escape to be made on foot.

"Get off the dragon, boy." One of the men spoke to him, but it only made Hiccup want to hold on tighter. No way was he going to let them separate him and Toothless. Even if it didn't mean much harm for him, it would be bad news for his dragon, who couldn't fly on his own.

"Get off that dragon now, boy, this is your last warning!" That same man seemed to cry out, though Hiccup couldn't pinpoint his location in this darkness.

It was becoming harder and harder to see and the boy felt more and more unnerved with the fact that he wouldn't be able to trust his eyes for much longer.

"Toothless, we have to get out of here. What do we do?" Hiccup would be lying if he said he wasn't scared in that moment.

"Shut your mouth, boy, and get off the damned beast!" Strings were pulled back and Hiccup once again sunk lower on his dragon, who glared at each of the men in front of him like a skittish animal. They were cornered and Toothless wasn't quite sure how to get them out of this.

Well, there was one thing a dragon did best, wasn't there?

Quickly gathering the gasses in his mouth, a blueish and purplish light ignited inside the Night Fury's throat before he shot a blast of fire into the direction of where Hiccup could only assume the majority of the uninvited visitors were standing.

Instead of letting their arrows fly, the targets in Toothless' range dove for cover with a shout just like he had hoped. And while then praying just as much that Hiccup was still secure on his back, he lunged for the newly created opening and in the blink of an eye disappeared into the vegetation.

As the moonlit ocean came into view in the distance, the rider realized they weren't running away from the other intruders, but straight for them.

"Uh, Bud?" Was there even time to question his dragon's motives?

"There they are!"

"Look! A boy on the dragon's back!"

"Don't let them escape!"

"Get them!"

A whole choir of voices broke out once Toothless left the safety of the forest and chose for the silent promise the sky gave them. Spreading his wings and beating them once or twice for lift off, Hiccup quickly knew that charging for the beach was simply a faster way of reaching for the air than searching the woods for a clearing would've been. Positioning the artificial tailfin, the two were off the ground soon enough.

But amongst the flurry of voices, there was one that stood out the most in how utterly gleefully they spoke.

"A Night Fury." The bald stranger said and he did so with a malicious smile, like a spider that found a squirming insect in its web.

"Capture that dragon alive! Even juveniles like that one will fetch us a hefty price of this species!" Hiccup and Toothless barely made it high enough before a series of bolas were thrown their way. One of them got hold of the reptile's tail while a second one wrapped around Hiccup, the impact of which caused him to lose his grip on the saddle and plummet to the ocean down below.

"Toothl-" The boy couldn't even finish before he fell into the freezing saltwater and accidentally swallowed almost a complete mouthful in his shock.

His dragon landed into a shallower part near the shore. Though it wasn't hard enough to hurt him, it was closer to the group of intruders and they did not wait to act. While Toothless struggled to go further into open water to search for his Viking boy, who had not yet resurfaced, chains were thrown around his neck by their attackers.

Roaring to be let go, Toothless felt himself be pulled back by the strength of several men. No matter how much he struggled, he wasn't getting anywhere like this, not with all those people pulling him back.

His urgent search for Hiccup had to wait until he could free himself first. He was already pulled up on the beach and continuing to fight them meant wasting the precious time that Hiccup might not be able to afford to lose.

So turning around to face those wretched invaders, Toothless charged with a plasma blast ready for use.

While the Night Fury had been struggling, Hiccup fought to free himself from the bola wrapped tightly around his arms and middle. His mind was wrecked with panic and his legs kicked wildly to bring him closer to the ocean's surface, but the burning yearning of his lungs for air remained unfulfilled. His eyes stung with the amount of salt in the water and the boy thought it was impossible to tell up from down in this darkness.

Only one other time had Hiccup ever experienced what it was like to drown and it had been at the hands of Dagur, the son of Chief Oswald the Agreeable of the Berserkers. What had seemed like an ' _innocent_ ' request from the older boy to go swimming had quickly taking a dark turn when all Dagur was really interested in was to torment the smaller boy some more.

Hiccup, aged ten at the time, had blacked out and didn't know who had saved him. Whoever had, had not made his dad aware of what had happened in the lake that day. For all he knew, it was Dagur who had grown bored and allowed him to breathe again.

Either way, that incident had not failed to give him the occasional nightmare once in a while and the teen had actively avoided going near lakes or any bodies of water whenever Dagur was visiting Berk. Swallowed by the dark sea now only served to further fuel his night terrors for the future.

But eventually he found salvation. Using the dagger he somehow pulled from the leather belt around his waist, Hiccup cut himself free from that infernal rope and he swam upwards for air as fast as he could.

Breaking through the calm waves, Hiccup gasped and coughed loudly. He tried his best to stay up and calm down now that he could finally breathe. Rubbing fervently through his stinging eyes, he longed to see what had become of Toothless while he was underwater.

If that draconic whining was anything to judge by, their situation had gone from bad to worse.

"Tooth-"

"I got the boy!" Cut off once more when a heavy hand pushed him back under, a distant and muffled cry of anguish reached Hiccup's ears when he disappeared from the Night Fury's sight.

That same hand grabbed hold of his brown hair and, writhing with all his might, Hiccup could not prevent this man from pulling him up on the beach. Before long he was thrown at the leader's feet.

"Hiccup..." Leaving the jovial 'master' behind him, Trader Johann addressed the teenaged boy and he, coughing and wheezing, looked up to his apparent captors.

"You know this boy, Johann?" The bald man asked with his heavy accent, pointing his blade towards the trembling youth.

"Yes, indeed I do. This is the scrawny heir I was telling you about. Stoick's runt." Hiccup tried to ignore the stinging in his chest at being insulted, but nothing could compare to knowing this longtime friend of Berk had every intention to betray him and his home.

The cold touch of the blade to his chin chilled his already freezing skin and Hiccup was forced to look the more intimidating man in the eye.

"An heir, huh? He doesn't look like much." Their words were simple in their cruelty, but were not any less effective in making him feel small and powerless.

But when had Hiccup ever let these kinds of belittling words stop him before?

Pushing the blade away from him cautiously, he gazed up at the seafaring merchant.

"Johann, I-I don't understand... What're you planning on doing to Berk? To me? What do you want from my dad? What's this 'King of Dragons' you're talking about?" His questions remained unanswered.

"Oh, he doesn't, does he? He's the son of an incredibly powerful chief and he just came riding in on one of those flying lizards. I hate to say it, but this boy may prove useful to us after all." Johann was stroking his beard in a way Hiccup shouldn't have liked, but his attention was elsewhere.

Scanning the beach, boy found his dragon pinned down, chained, and muzzled. They had overpowered him.

A powerful creature such as a Night Fury, rendered to such a sorry state in an amount of time as short as this? The sight made him both angry and fearful.

"Are you listening, boy?!" A painful kick to his ribs send Hiccup sprawling on the sandy shore. They were sure to bruise later and his chest was already hurting so bad.

Toothless growled in the background, but all it did was amuse the man further.

"My name is Ryker Grimborn and I'm a Dragon Hunter. And you, Hiccup Haddock, are going to tell me just how you managed to tame a Night Fury." The man, who Hiccup now knew for sure was called Ryker, spoke in such a decisive manner. He was apparently very certain he was going to get every dirty little secret out of the teen.

Well then, he hadn't truly met Hiccup Haddock the Third yet. His lips were sealed.

"Okay, sure, I'll tell you everything that I know." No matter how much it pained his tired body, Hiccup pushed his scrawny self up on his feet, removing the sand from his hands and person.

"Starting with the fact that I didn't _'tame'_ Toothless. And that my father, Stoick the Vast, is going to notice I'm missing and he _will_ search for me. He would search for any missing Berkian, no matter who they are." At least, Hiccup hoped this threat would work. If just enough to buy him the time needed to think of a plan.

"I don't know why he'd go through such trouble for the likes of you, but one thing's for sure. Once you and your dragon are loaded onto the ship, your father won't find you unless we want him to." There was an awful truth to Ryker's words.

Stoick the Vast did not set foot off his island unless it was to search for the Dragon's Nest or to meet allied tribes for peace treaties. Hiccup hadn't been lying when he boldly stated his dad would come looking for his son, Gobber had often stated how he'd move heaven and Earth to make sure his only child would stay safe. The real question here was how long it would take the man to find him.

Hiccup wasn't so happy with his odds.

"Bring them both onboard the ship. We're setting sail for our home base immediately, so don't leave a single trace. We don't want Berk to have anything that can tie us to the disappearance of their heir. If they'll even look for him." After one last cruel chuckle, Ryker bid his farewel to Johann and the two went their separate ways.

Toothless struggled against his bonds as he was forced into an oddly coloured cage, but his efforts were in vain. Likewise, Hiccup couldn't fight the two men who grabbed him by the arms and lifted him from his feet, but as he wasn't tied up, he managed to land at least on solid hit with his left ankle.

"Oof! You cursed brat!" The man groaned as he sunk to his knees with his hands on his groin, where the boy had effortlessly kicked with all the might his thin body had.

Hiccup would've grinned mischievously if he had the time, instead he tried to pull himself free from the second Dragon Hunter, all the while calling for his dragon.

"Toothless, shoot! Fire! Do something about that cage!" For a brief moment he managed to wiggle his arm free after stomping on his captor's foot. His arms may not be much, but dragonriding had already done wonders for his legs. He ran for his Night Fury next, hoping he could come up with something plausible before he reached him.

However, that short moment of freedom was over all too soon.

"Oh for Gods' sake, just knock the brat out and be done with it!" The order barely had to roll of Ryker's tongue or Hiccup felt someone bash him on the back of his head.

Toothless, still muzzled, released a cry as he watched helplessly how his Viking fell limp to the sand.

Hiccup didn't understand why, but Johann had watched it all happen and he had done so in glee. He didn't know what he'd done to make the man hate him so, but it was the last thing he saw before blacking out.

* * *

 _Oh, look! Another cliffhanger! ;D_


	3. Missing

_Welp! Here we are! Chapter 3! A surprisingly difficult chapter to write. I wasn't quite sure where to end it at first._

* * *

 **Lost No More: Chapter 3 - Missing**

As the sun set and the evening continued to pass him by, Chief Stoick the Vast was beginning to grow nervous.

His son had left the celebration in the Great Hall somewhere in the early afternoon and it would seem like he hasn't been seen since. It had been thrown in his honour as he was to be this year's champion for dragon training, but no one had stopped him from leaving.

Stoick hadn't been too worried at first. Remembering that Gobber had once told him about how the boy liked to disappear into the forests of Berk during the day to take a break from all of the overwhelming attention, the man had decided to leave him be. He believed Hiccup should get the peace and quiet he wished to have.

Besides, the boy needed to prepare for the exam tomorrow. He knew the Hofferson girl liked to practice with her axe in the forest in solitude, something he had heard from her proud parents a little while back, maybe his son had developed a similar kind of habit.

The Chief had tried to both attend the celebration and tend to his duties as best as he could even with his head in the clouds. The sheer pride in his lanky son, Hiccup, was just indescribable. But now he was home earlier than usual to await the teenager's eventual return to fill him with words of encouragement and wisdom. However, it didn't seem like Hiccup was coming back.

The minutes stretched on and before long turned into hours. The sun sunk lower into the sky until it became too difficult to see outside without lighting the torches spread somewhat evenly throughout the village.

And still there was no sign of Hiccup.

Stoick sat in his great chair, the fingers of his large right hand tapping impatiently on the armrest purely out of worry.

Gobber had once told him to have more faith in Hiccup, to not be so... overbearing and give him the benefit of the doubt. But it was getting quite late now, wasn't it? Surely the boy should've been back already?

Glancing over at where untouched food now sat cold on the table, Stoick decided that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to at least spring by the forge for a moment and see if his son wasn't still working on something there and had simply lost track of time. It had happened before.

Pushing himself up from his seat and grabbing his furred cloak on the way, Stoick quickly disappeared out through the front door.

* * *

Hiccup wasn't at the forge.

Stoick had gone there to check first, but all he found was a very drunk blacksmith limping and swaying his way to bed while singing incoherently. He never even noticed the Chief's presence.

Stoick had searched, but even Hiccup's own personal little study remained dark and devoid of life. He didn't seem to notice that some of the boy's things were missing. There was usually always a mess of papers and tools in there.

His concern gradually growing, Stoick had tried to tell himself that there was no need to worry. Perhaps the boy had returned to the feast or had simply gone to find his friends. He'd heard how his son was no longer sitting alone during meals, how the other kids his age sought him out. He was finally fitting in.

Stoick decided to go searching for Hiccup in the Great Hall first, but that yielded no results as the only Vikings still left were either drunk or just leaving. There was no trace of a young, small boy or even the friends he had recently begun associating himself with. And with how little people had remained, they couldn't have hidden amongst the crowd either.

Knowing that there were still other places to look, Stoick left the Great Hall after a quick scan with his gaze to make his way to the Jorgenson household in the hopes of catching his son there. Hiccup and Snotlout were on better terms as off late. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to think he might be there. And if not, he could still check with the Ingermans, the Thorstons, and finally the Hoffersons.

Stoick the Vast didn't get very far before a peculiar conversation between five youngster took his attention away from his urgent search, but only because he had heard his son's name being spoken.

"I don't get why you're all falling for it. Don't you see that everything Hiccup does in the ring makes no sense?!" The high voice of the Hofferson girl reached Stoick's ears and he looked over to see the group of five he had been about to visit hang out not too far away from the Great Hall instead of returning home like they all should've at this hour.

"He doesn't use any weapons, almost always drops his shield, and yet he still wins! He barely even touches them! And none of you think that's weird?!" Usually he would've raised an eyebrow at the distrusting words he heard Astrid speak about his son, but he was more concerned with finding Hiccup.

He could speak to her about it once he found the boy and brought him home.

"Are you saying Hiccup is faking it? How would he even do that, Astrid?! Dragons literally drop before his feet!" Snotlout seemed to be disagreeing with Astrid and passionately defending his cousin, something that the other three were surprised to witness.

Snotlout's unspoken relief that Hiccup was a dragon killer just like him was more obvious than he wanted it to be. Everyone had seen him help Fishlegs put Hiccup on his shoulder to parade him around the Kill Ring after the announcement of earlier today. At least for a little while, Snotlout seemed to hold him in high regard.

"But he never even touches them! So how does he take them down?!" Astrid continued to argue, but the other teens weren't as ready to listen as she had hoped them to be.

"Yeah, so? Hiccup's always been weird," It was an odd thing for Tuffnut, of all people, to say.

"He probably just as a weird way of dealing with dragons." His sister, Ruffnut, finished for him.

Astrid was getting nowhere as she voiced her suspicions and it only served to frustrate her further, her temper not too fond of being tested to begin with.

That Fishlegs was remaining completely quiet wasn't helping either. And he was the only one who seemed torn between siding with Hiccup or backing Astrid up. He, too, had noticed how the heir's way of taking down the training dragons was a little... unorthodox.

A frustrated sigh left the Hofferson girl. She didn't see the Chief coming their way, but Fishlegs did.

"All I'm saying is that something doesn't make sense. I don't know how Hiccup cheated, but I'm gonna prove-"

"Astrid!"

Fishlegs warned Astrid to quiet herself before the five teenagers looked over to see their Chief and Hiccup's father storming over, though it didn't look like it was anger that drove him, relieving Astrid as she had feared the man heard her slandering words.

In fact, he seemed more worried than anything.

"Have any of you seen, Hiccup?" Rather than asking why these kids were still outside this late, all Stoick wanted to know were the whereabouts of his son and nothing more.

Astrid tried not to let her displeasure show as she crossed her arms and cast her look down to the grassy ground and away from their leader. As for the remaining four, they all stared at eachother in question. It was pretty clear that they had only one answer to give him.

"The last time we saw him was when he left the Great Hall hours ago, Sir." Fishlegs answered timidly and three of them seemed to agree, nodding in agreement. That was the last time any of them had seen him.

Their Chief's worried expression grew when he realized no one had seen Hiccup for hours and it unnerved them instantly.

It was also what urged Astrid to speak up, feeling guilt nag at her heart as this father was genuinely concerned for his only son's safety.

"I saw Hiccup go into the forest after he left the feast." Astrid pointed into the exact direction she had seen him disappear into, but that answer did little to help ease the father's worried mind.

Already all sorts of worst case scenarios started to fill his head, plaguing the overprotective parent's mind with whatever fate his only child could be suffering at this very moment or had suffered hours ago without anyone even knowing.

There were so many dangers in the forests ouside of the village of Berk. The wild boars roaming in the woods, they could be pretty aggressive and especially unforgiving to a boy as small as Hiccup. Bears lived there and they were the kind that would tower even over someone as enormous as Stoick the Vast. Even the occasional dragon was sometimes seen out there in the wild.

Hiccup might have proven himself a capable dragon killer, but could he truly handle all those dangers by himself? Stoick gave himself a resounding 'no' to that question, though he had never said it out loud.

Even besides the wildlife, there were other dangers on the island of Berk. There were the wild rivers that could've swept him away and drowned him. Steep cliffs weren't an uncommon thing either and one unfortunate misstep is all that it took to send even a seasoned Viking to meet with a brutal fall. There were also poisonous berries and other deceptively innocent plant life, though Stoick knew his boy was too smart to be tricked by that.

Hiccup had proved to be capable of taking care of himself and he had been frequenting the forests outside of the village for years, he even before he was allowed to. He might even know it better than anyone else on this entire island. Still Stoick felt that overprotective part of him win.

He had to find his son. He had to.

* * *

After leaving the five kids behind to wallow in worry over their missing friend, Stoick the Vast gathered every able man and woman he could find.

Unfortunately, after the celebratory feast held earlier that same day, that meant not many were still up to the task of finding a small lost boy so late in the evening. Vikings were known for their drinking. Well, the Hooligans were at least. Many were too drunk to be of much help, if any.

"My son was last seen entering the forest outside of the village this afternoon, so that is where we will start our search." The Chief's booming voice shouted to reach every Berkian man and woman present in the Great Hall for this emergency meeting.

They had all gathered around the large fire burning in a great circle in the middle of the hall and listened intently. Their Chief had all eyes on him as he stood at one side of the circular table build around the large pit. Every single one of them wore a grave expression. Not because Hiccup was the one missing, but simply because one of their own had not come back home.

A Hooligan was never abandoned, no matter who they were. That Hiccup was their heir mattered little. Even Mildew would be searched after if he was the one who had vanished.

"We don't know where my son spends his time during the day and we don't know where exactly he has gone off to. So I ask of you now, look beneath every rock and tree, don't pass up a single cave, check every cliff. My boy disappeared hours ago. He may be out there somewhere in need of our help." Stoick tried desperately to keep it together, tried to keep being the strong Chief his people knew him to be.

But knowing that he had no idea where his son was weighed heavily on him and all the fears plaguing his mind did little to sooth him. Yet panicking would not help Hiccup in the slightest.

"Go now. We may not have much time." Stoick ordered his people and they did not hesitate to leave the Great Hall, muttering amongst themselves words he could not hear as they steadily left.

Without wasting any time did the still fairly large rescue team separate into several different groups of three to four Vikings as agreed upon earlier in the meeting. They each got a section of the forest assigned to them. Grabbing torches and axes, the teams left to their respective areas in the hopes of finding the lost boy.

As they searched, the worried father returned home on advice of some of the women, who suggested someone needed to stay at the Haddock Household in case Hiccup came back by himself.

Besides, even if he were to tag along, with which group would he even go?

* * *

Stoick waited in his house for hours on end, pacing restlessly across the room for most of it.

With each passing second he hoped someone would return to him with news of his son. He hoped Hiccup would nonchalantly enter through the front door and have no idea what was wrong or why the village was in such turmoil.

It would've been so much better than to sit there and wonder why the boy wasn't with him right now or if he was even okay.

He was a father who worried often for his son. Hiccup had always been such a small boy. Even as a baby was he smaller than his peers. Danger was drawn to him like moths to a flame and very rarely did he go out of its way. It also did not help that Hiccup was very curious by nature. And as smart as he was, his impulsiveness and want to prove himself had often gotten him into trouble he could've avoided.

It was why Stoick had always been so protective of him, but because Hiccup had been doing so well in Dragon Training, he had let him go for a little bit. Now the boy was missing and Stoick couldn't ignore the nagging feeling that this was somehow his fault.

Hiccup was his son, his responsibility, his to keep safe.

The only report that the Chief had gotten so far that wasn't a blatant 'Hiccup wasn't in this area either, sorry' was about a large cove that had many signs of a considerably sized dragon living in it.

Several scorched spots decorated the grass, lost black scales were strewn all over the place, there were half-eaten fish and the bones of small rodents littering the ground, there were the occasional claw markings on trees and rocks. They were obvious signs that a dragon had been staying in that cove and for a prolonged time too.

It were the black scales that worried him the most.

A black dragon. It was one Stoick didn't know and that made the absence of his young son even worse.

The mysterious dragon, Hiccup's disappearance, it was much too coincidental. Stoick felt a sickening feeling twist his stomach into a painful knot when he connected dots he hoped had nothing to do with eachother.

The cove they found was almost a good half hour away on foot too, a good long walk for a Viking. But if Hiccup screamed, no one would have heard him.

The only comfort Stoick had was that there had been no sign of blood. No signs that a scrawny teenaged boy had been ripped apart in that very place, only fish.

The dragon could've flown off with him, but Stoick tried not to think about that.

"Stoick!" The door burst open to reveal Berk's very own blacksmith hurrying inside, panting and leaning with a hand on top of his knee a he caught his breath.

Stoick had not expected to see him, but one look out the open door revealed that the sun was already rising.

An entire night of searching for Hiccup and they had come up empty.

"Stoick, is it true what everyone is saying? Is 'Iccup missing?!" Gobber had been trying to sleep away his drunken stupor, but upon being awakened by this terrible news, had promptly jumped out of bed to meet with the Chief himself and see just how much of the story hadn't been made-up.

His old friend tried to fight the disappointment he felt as this meant there was still no news.

"Yes, it is Gobber. The Hofferson girl, Astrid, was the last one to see my son and she told me she had seen him run off into the forest. I send a search party to find him. He hasn't returned, Gobber, and no one has told me any news either." The mountain of a man felt impossibly exhausted and he failed at finding the strength to even stand up from his seat at the table.

So tired was he after all the worrying, so paralyzing was the very fact that Hiccup was not with him.

Gobber could see it, of course. How could he not? So he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the Viking Chief.

"Ye know... For as 'opeless as 'Iccup was, 'e's always been a smart boy, Stoick. I'm sure they'll find 'im safe and sound somewhere. No need to worry." The blacksmith attempted to comfort the man with a reassuring smile, but it didn't seem like Stoick was in a mood to listen.

"It's been an entire night and half a day, Gobber. Something is terribly wrong, I can feel it in my bones." The father's voice betrayed the utter concern he felt and Gobber just noticed the hief had been holding Hiccup's first Viking helmet in his hands.

What could he even say to help this poor man? His very own friend? Nothing would soothe his worries or ease his heart. Nothing, besides seeing Hiccup safe and unharmed with his own two eyes.

It became quiet in the Haddock Household when neither knew what to say, but the silence didn't stay for long when someone burst in through the front door again and this it was one of the Vikings who had left on the search.

He sounded panicked, his eyes were wide in shock, he struggled to catch his breath in order to relay his message to Chief Stoick, and he shouted.

"Chief Stoick! The beach!"


End file.
